Media influence on attitudes toward guns and gun control

This study employs the 1995 National Opinion Survey of Crime and Justice to examine the effect that media consumption (hours of television viewing per week, regular viewing of crime drama, and primary source of crime news) has on attitudes towards guns and gun control. Logistic regression results indicate that regular viewers of crime shows are more likely to oppose gun control and believe that firearms prevent crime. Respondents who receive their primary crime news from the print media are more likely to disagree with making it easier to conceal firearms. The author suggests that violent depiction of crime on television may influence viewers’ attitudes toward guns and gun control.     

The impact of race, police experience, and feeling of safety on attitude toward the police

This study surveyed 393 citizens who were either crime victims or complainants in the jurisdiction of the Marietta, GA Police Department in 2004. In addition to examining their local attitudes toward police demeanor and police performance, the study also evaluated the impact of race, police experience, and perceived neighborhood safety. Important findings included that overall (1) the majority of respondents felt safe in their neighborhood and were satisfied with the police who handled their case; (2) the same amount of blacks and whites reported negative experiences with the police; and (3) although all three factors greatly affected attitudes, contact experience with the police was the most influential.     

NEIGHBORHOOD STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS,INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL ATTITUDES,AND YOUTHS' CRIME REPORTING INTENTIONS*

Although the “stop snitching” phenomenon has brought recent attention to crime reporting, researchers have recognized for a long time the importance of this issue. Early studies focused on individual-level factors related to reporting, but recently, researchers have begun to examine neighborhood-level predictors. Most of these studies, however, omit key individual-level predictors of reporting and provide relatively little insight into the individual-level processes through which neighborhood context might affect reporting. This study uses survey data from a multisite, school-based study to examine whether neighborhood structural characteristics and individual-level attitudes and experiences are related to youths’ intentions to report crime. In addition, we assess whether neighborhood characteristics influence reporting via their effect on individual-level attitudes and experiences. We find that neighborhood poverty has an inverse relationship with crime reporting intentions and that numerous individual-level measures are associated with reporting, including attitudes toward the police, delinquency, and perceptions of the community. Importantly, the effects of neighborhood characteristics are reduced when youths’ attitudes and experiences are included in the model. Taken together, our findings suggest that neighborhood context might affect reporting by shaping the attitudes and experiences of youth.     

PATTERNS OF LEGAL FIREARMS OWNERSHIP: A Cultural and Situational Analysis of Illinois Counties

Using county level data for the state of Illinois, we constructed a path analytic model predicting legal gun ownership for men. women, and minors. We consider the interplay between situational and cultural variables in determining legal ownership. Two patterns of firearms ownership are identified: (1) gun ownership among women as a response to high rales of violent crime and (2) a sporting culture. Neither pattern has strong relations to urban-rural differences amoung counties. Legal gun ownership is not necessarily related to a violent subculture. Ownership may be part of, a response to, or totally unrelated to a subculture of violence.     

Determinants of black and white attitudes toward gun regulation: A research note

Should one expect different determinants of gun regulation attitudes for blacks and whites? This question is addressed using survey information on 1,361 whites and 129 black from the 1976 National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey. Results indicate that the pattern of relationships on the issue of gun regulation differ very little by race. This does not, however, preclude the possibility of racially different reasons for the same association or a racially differentiated association.     

CRIMES, DISORDERS, AND THE DEMAND FOR HANDGUNS: An Empirical Analysis

In a recent paper, Bordua and Lizotte (1979) analyze determinants of firearm ownership using cross-sectional data for Illinois counties. Noting that firearms may be purchased for the purpose of sport, self-protection, or crime, they present clear evidence of sporting demand and limited evidence of defensive motives in the pattern of gun ownership. Crime rates are significant only in the equation explaining gun ownership by women (1979: 161). The purpose of the present article is to supplement the findings of Bordua and Lizotte and earlier empirical studies by focusing on the demand for handguns alone. In particular, the article analyzes the role of crime rates and fear of violence in motivating citizens to buy and keep handguns. For this purpose, aggregate time-series and cross-sectional data on handgun sales were collected and analyzed. Because handguns are durable pieces of equipment, it is necessary to use a model that distinguishes the stock of handguns at any one time from the rate of handgun purchases.     

THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF GUN OWNERSHIP: SELF-PROTECTION IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT*

Based on a survey of 539 residents of Cincinnati, this study assesses various explanations of gun ownership. The analysis reveals that gender and childhood socialization into a gun culture are significantly related to protective and general (or “sport”) firearm possession. In contrast, only protective gun ownership appears to be linked to crime-related factors. Conservative crime ideology and concern about the relative level of crime in one's neighborhood increase armament for defensive purposes, while informal collective security—the belief that neighbors will provide assistance against criminal victimization—reduces protective gun ownership.     

State and Local Prevalence of Firearms Ownership Measurement, Structure, and Trends

Of the readily computed proxies for the prevalence of gun ownership, one, the percentage of suicides committed with a gun, is most highly correlated with survey-based estimates. It is the best choice for use in cross-section analysis of the effect of gun prevalence on crime patterns across states and larger counties.Analysis of this proxy measure for the period 1979–1997 demonstrates that the geographic structure of gun ownership has been highly stable. That structure is closely linked to rural tradition. There is, however, some tendency toward homogenization over this period, with high-prevalence states trending down and low-prevalence states trending up.     

Crime Gun Risk Factors: Buyer,Seller, Firearm,and Transaction Characteristics Associated with Gun Trafficking and Criminal Gun Use

Objective

To better understand the workings of illicit gun markets by identifying the characteristics of buyers, sellers, firearms, and transactions that predict whether a gun is used in crime or obtained by an illegal possessor subsequent to purchase.

Methods

The study employed multivariate survival analysis utilizing data on nearly 72,000 guns sold in the Baltimore metropolitan area from 1994 through 1999 and subsequent recoveries of over 1,800 of those guns by police in Baltimore through early 2000.

Results

Adjusting for exposure time, guns sold in the Baltimore area had a 3.2 % chance of being recovered by police in Baltimore within 5 years. Guns were more likely to be recovered if: they were semiautomatic, medium to large caliber, easily concealable, and cheap; the buyers were black, young, female, living in or close to the city, and had previously purchased guns that were recovered by police; the dealer making the sale was, most notably, in or near the city and had made prior sales of crime guns; and the gun was purchased in a multiple gun transaction. The adoption of a law regulating secondhand gun sales in Maryland did not appear to affect the likelihood of a gun’s recovery, though the extent of the law’s enforcement is unclear.

Conclusions

Risk factors identified in this study could be used to guide gun trafficking investigations, regulation of gun dealers, and the development of prevention efforts for high-risk actors and areas. The results also provide some support for policies that regulate particular types of firearms and transactions. Limitations to the study and directions for future research are discussed.     

GENDER,FEAR, AND PROTECTIVE HANDGUN OWNERSHIP*

Nonrecursive models which have been used to assess the potentially reciprocal relationship between fear of crime and handgun ownership may suffer on two accounts: (a) the use of “weak” instrumental variables: and (b) the measurement of household (versus personal) handgun ownership. Data from the 1980 NORC General Social Survey are used in this study to minimize these problems in examining the relationships among fear of crime, victimization, and protective handgun ownership among males and females. Significant effects of fear and victimization on personal gun ownership are found among men but not among women. These results are discussed in light of two concerns. First, earlier research is confirmed that finds gender differences in the factors influencing gun ownership. Second, a clear need is emphasized for further research addressing questions of both conceptualization and measurement in the study of fear of crime and its effects on protective handgun ownership.     

COLLECTIVE SECURITY AND THE OWNERSHIP OF FIREARMS FOR PROTECTION

This paper examines the hypothesis that people purchase firearms for protection when confidence in collective institutions of justice and security declines. Analysis of survey data from Detroit indicates that gun ownership for protection is inversely related to confidence in the police and in the courts, and that these relationships are independent of demographic and socioeconomic variables and fear of crime.     

RACIAL COMPOSITION OF NEIGHBORHOOD AND FEAR OF CRIME*

A relationship between fear of crime and the racial composition of place has been widely assumed but seldom tested. Interviews conducted with a random sample of adults residing in a major state capital in the early months of 1994-at the height of a media-driven panic about violent crime-are used to test the proposition that as the percentage of blacks in one's neighborhood increases, so too will the fear of crime. We use objective and perceptual measures of racial composition, and we examine the effects of racial composition and minority status on fear of crime for black and white respondents. We distinguish between perceived safety or risk of victimization and fear, with the former used as an intervening variable in path models of fear of crime. Results show that actual racial composition has no consequence for the fear of crime when other relevant factors are controlled. Perceived racial composition is significant for fear among whites, but not among African-Americans. In particular, the perception that one is in the racial minority in one's neighborhood elevates fear among whites but not among blacks. All effects of perceived racial composition on fear are indirect and mediated by the perception of risk of crime.     

Distrust of Government, the Vigilante Tradition, and Support for Capital Punishment

This study probes the interconnections among distrust of government, the historical context, and public support for the death penalty in the United States with survey data for area-identified samples of white and black respondents. Multilevel statistical analyses indicate contrary effects of government distrust on support for the death penalty for blacks and whites, fostering death penalty support among whites and diminishing it among blacks. In addition, we find that the presence of a "vigilante tradition," as indicated by a history of lynching, promotes death penalty support among whites but not blacks. Finally, contrary to Zimring's argument in The Contradictions of Capital Punishment , we find no evidence that vigilantism moderates the influence of government distrust on support for the death penalty, for either whites or blacks. Our analyses highlight the continuing influence of historical context as well as contemporary conditions in the formation of public attitudes toward criminal punishment, and they underscore the importance of attending to racial differences in the analysis of punitive attitudes.     

RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN EXPOSURE TO CRIME: THE CITY AND SUBURBS OF CLEVELAND IN 1990*

Do minorities live in higher crime neighborhoods because they lack the class resources to live in better areas, or do racial differences in exposure to crime persist even for blacks and whites of comparable backgrounds? Does living in the suburbs reduce exposure to crime equally for whites and blacks? This study analyzes the determinants of living in local areas with higher or lower crime rates in the Cleveland metropolitan region in 1990. Multivariate models are estimated for whites and blacks, with separate models for city and suburban residents and for violent crime and property crime. Within the city, exposure to both types of crime is strongly related to socioeconomic status for both races, but there are also strong independent effects of race on exposure to violent crime. In the suburbs, whites are concentrated in communities with low crime rates regardless of their social class. There are substantial class differences among suburban nonwhites, but even afluent blacks live in places with a higher violent crime rate than do poor whites.     

Police officer attitudes toward peers, supervisors, and citizens: A comparison between field training officers and regular officers

This article assesses whether police Field Training Officers (FTOs) display patterns of attitudes that distinguish them from non-field training officers. The analysis focuses on attitudes toward four important groups: fellow officers, immediate supervisors, top managers, and neighborhood residents. Interview data used were collected from Indianapolis Police Department (IPD) during the summer of 1996. Findings show that FTOs are more critical of their immediate supervisors and district managers than non-FTOs, whereas FTOs and non-FTOs hold similar attitudes toward their co-workers and neighborhood residents. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.     

Black and white complainants and the police: A comparison of individual and contextual characteristics

Citizens have always had an important role in the crime control process; they are most often responsible for the detection of crime. It is imperative, therefore, that citizens perceive police officers to be competent and just in the execution of their duties; in the absence of such confidence, the process suffers. Ironically, the groups which are most often the victims of crime hold the most negative attitudes toward the police. Minorities in urban communities, particularly blacks, fit this pattern. These attitudes appear to be linked to the perception of negative, differential experiences with the police, experiences which often lead to the filing of a formal complaint. Using a data set from the complaint files of a large American city, this article explores the relationship between the attitudes of blacks toward the police, experiences with the police, and complaints lodged against the police.     

CITIZEN GUN OWNERSHIP AND CRIMINAL DETERRENCE: THEORY,RESEARCH, AND POLICY*

Research on the general and specific deterrents emanating from citizenowned firearms is examined under assumptions about deterrence. Only slight and indirect empirical evidence for deterrence exists in the area of citizen gun ownership. The crime-reducing effects associated with public policies that support civilian gun ownership are balanced in light of other, negative public health factors associated with citizen-owned guns.     

Race,female headship,and delinquency: A longitudinal analysis

Two recent studies support the hypothesis of a positive association between the “broken family” and crime; one repeats an earlier finding that this relationship is stronger for blacks than for whites. The alarm over the upsurge in female family headship in the United States led to a test of the hypothesis with previously neglected longitudinal data. For the years 1971 to 1986, despite tremendous increases in female family headship among blacks, only one of eight index offenses (arrests) showed an increase among black juveniles. Among white juveniles, increases in three of eight index offenses accompanied the increase in female headship. More important, multiple regression analysis yielded no significant relationship between female headship and any of the eight index offenses or total index offenses for black or white juveniles. The findings may be explained in part by changing attitudes toward birth outside marriage, divorce, and women's competence to rear children by themselves. Also, proposed explanations of the broken family/crime association, such as ineffective supervision by single parents and weakened attachment to single parents, are rendered irrelevant by our findings.     

Risky Firearms Behavior in Low-Income Families of Elementary School Children: The Impact of Poverty, Fear of Crime, and Crime Victimization on Keeping and Storing Firearms

This report examines possession and storage of firearms in low-income urban families with at least one child between 8 and 12 years of age. The data primarily consisted of responses to a survey administered to parents, but these data were supplemented by records obtained from discussion groups composed of children between 8 and 12 years of age. The data were collected from five low-income neighborhoods in a medium sized city in the Pacific Northwest as part of a larger study focusing on the presence of risk factors for substance abuse, violence, and gang activity. All five neighborhoods are known to be plagued by poverty, violence, substance abuse, and gang activity. To make our findings more understandable, we compared our findings from these neighborhoods to similar data from a middle-class neighborhood. Middle-class parents were twice as likely to have firearms in their homes, but were much less likely to keep them loaded and/or unlocked. High rates of victimization, fear of crime, self-protective behavior, and exposure to threats or attacks were associated with keeping firearms for protection and engaging in risky gun behavior in the home.